Wheels are for riding, they mean freedom, whether it be on the road from racing to touring or for off road riding - at BORg Wheels you will find wheels built just for you. 

There are a number of reasons why I build wheels rather than buy them in ready-built from Mavic, Campagnolo, Fulcrum etc. One of the most important reasons though, is that I enjoy building wheels. 

The other reason I have very specific ideas about what makes a good wheelset, and it depends on a number of factors which I will elaborate on below.

Good wheels are stiff wheels. All wheels have three components of stiffness: lateral, radial and torsional. Stiffer wheels mean that, for a given load, there are smaller tension changes in the spokes, and small tension changes mean shorter length changes and that in turn means the spokes fatigue at a slower rate. Stiff wheels are easier to build as well. 

There are a number of factors that affect 

1) radial stiffness, and that is mostly the profile of the rim, spoke count, and spoke gauge. Rim mass is not that relevant to how radially stiff a wheel is. Rim profile is critical. Wider, deeper rims require fewer spokes to create a stable long-lived wheel.

2) lateral stiffness - this has nothing to do with brake rub. Brake rub happens when a stiff rim is not sufficiently supported by the spokes for the loads placed on it. When this happens the rub happens. Lateral stiffness is only affected by spoke count, spoke gauge, bracing angle and rim stiffness. Spoke crossing affect bracing angle. The more crosses the spokes have, the lower the bracing angle, although this is not a big change.

3) torsional stiffness - this is mostly affected by spoke count, spoke gauge, flange PCD and the angle the spoke makes relative to the flange. If the spoke is tangential to the flange, then torsional stiffness is maximised. The larger the flange, the lower the pedalling or braking loads are on the spokes. This is particularly important for disc brake bikes. Hubs with large flanges reduce braking loads on the spokes. Flange PCD  has very little affect of bracing angle, so when you see large flanges, you know the reason now. 

Rims also have a torsional stiffness, i.e., resistance to twisting. Twist makes wheels feel sluggish. The BORG31 and BORG31DISC wheelset is an excellent example of a wheelset that is not light but feels repsosnsive simply because the rim can't really twist. 

Therefore, the wheels listed are built with the above in mind. Wheels with shallow rims have higher spoke counts than wheels with deeper rims. 

Rim choice:

Many wheel manufacturers are still wedded to 15mm internal width rims for the road; however, this is starting to change. Narrow rims are not optimal. Wider road/CX rims are now in production with internal widths in the 17-20.5mm range. This makes your tyres take on a wider profile, i.e., they become wider and therefore more comfortable, as lower pressures can be used. This does not slow you down in any way, on the contrary when cornering, you should notice improved grip if you push hard enough. Why? Well, the same reason that cars come with low-profile tyres these days - a better-supported sidewall flexes less and the amount of sidewall flex on a tyre dictates the amount of lateral grip you have. BORG road wheels have an internal width of 19mm. That is suitable for tyres from 25mm through to 40mm with the proper shape. Gravel and MTB wheels need wider rims still.

Wide rims are stiffer than narrower ones, which can lead to a problem. Stiffer rims don't bend much when side-loaded, so movement at the brake or chain stays is possible. To avoid this, higher spoke counts or thicker spokes are needed. The BORG31 wheelset is a classic example of this. Sapim CX-Force force spokes are used instead of the lighter and less stiff Sapim CX-Ray spokes. If the lighter spokes are used, the wheel would still be reliable, but brake rub would be more likely. The BORG31 Light gets away with CX-rays because the Miche SWR hubs support the rim better with a large non-drive side bracing angle. Stiffer wheels result in smaller length changes in the spokes, and that means a slower rate of spoke fatigue and that is good news for you and my reputation.

So you will find I mostly build with wide, stiff rims. There are my own BORG rims and other selected rims that I have built with many times before. 

Rims with an asymmetric design (to increase spoke tension on the low side) are available. This does help maintain spoke tension for those who side load wheels a lot and when tubeless tyres are used the tension drop is often savage so every little helps. The downside is a small loss in lateral stiffness. Its around 2% and can be ignored. 

Also the rims I use are generally in stock, so if you crash and damage one and they won't cost you the earth. 

There is also a large number of wider MTB rims, and again, tyres on wider rims just perform better than on narrower ones so why wouldn't you want that? BORG28, BORG35 are good choices. There are a few others I like, but I find these rims are nice and robust.

Hubs:

I use Miche hubs a lot because they are brilliant in every way without breaking the bank. They are simple to service and provide, very reliable and provide good bracing angles. The other hubset I favour are made by Carbon Ti because they do all the thing the miche hubs do but weigh 224g for a pair. Spares for these hubs are readily available. 

I will also build with Royce, Hope and my own rim brake hubs (for 2:1 lacing)

Spokes:

I use Sapim J-bend spokes mostly because they are not overpriced and readily available everywhere. 

There are myths about spaim spokes I should address here.

Fatigue is how spokes fail. Fatigue is caused by length changes caused by loading the spokes. Those length changes weaken the metal till eventually the spoke experiences a peak load that's higher than its strength, and then it pops. This is why replacing broken spokes is futile, and others will follow. A failed spoke means every spoke should be replaced. Now, pre-existing flaws in the spoke wire or defects in the spoke thread are a common cause of failure. Ultimately, that's beyond our control. 

The length changes a spoke experiences in a wheel does depend on how stiff the wheel is. Stiffer wheels flex less, so the length change a spoke will experience for a given load will be lower. Their fatigue happens at a slower rate. 

Strength is not the failure load. Strength in material. Stress is load per unit of cross-sectional area. Thinner spokes have higher ultimate tensile strength because they are thinner. The force and cx force spokes, even though they have the same cross-sectional area as the sapim race have higher strength, so they have higher failure loads. So fatigue will take longer to do its thing with the Force spokes than with the Sapim Race. Now you know I use them. That and the thicker elbow. 

Sapim state fatigue test show the CX ray as Sapim's most fatigyue resistant spoke. It is also very thin. Its failure load is actually lower than the sapim cx force even though its strength is higher. You don't ride a spoke, you ride on a wheel. A stiffer wheel will generally show longer spoke life. So why are 29er disc brake mtb wheels built with CX Ray's, beats me. CX Ray's are not stronger in a way that means your wheel will take higher loads before failure or give you more miles before a spoke fails. It could be the other way around. 

Sapim's results are not wrong. The way they are interpreted and used by some is wrong. 

So don't pick the cx-ray because it's stronger. Pick it because it shows low aerodynamic drag, and it is light and in aero wheels like the BORG45DISC or the BORG50C it works well. 

You may also have gathered I don't offer wheelsets where the customer gets told cho

My disc brake wheels mainly use Sapim triple butted spokes. This extends spoke life and allows me to use lower spoke count without having to worry about weight limits. For example, the Sapim Force and CX-force have a 2.2mm diameter at the elbow. This is 21% more cross-sectional area where it matters the most. So with these spokes, 24F/24R with 30+mm deep rims and 28F/28R with medium depth rims will be fine for most riders covering the normal weight range.

All wheels I build are done on my Park Tool TS 2.2 and to ensure even spoke tension, the Sapim spoke tension gauge is brought out to play. Spoke tensions are 1200N to 1300N DS (depending on the rim) rear and for the front 1000N. Tension variance should be no more than +/-5%. This ensures long spoke life and wheels that do not go out of true. All wheels leave the shop laterally true to within 0.2mm normally. Sometimes a wheel refuses to behave and 0.3mm of lateral wobble is seen, this is rare, though. Anything beyond and I would pick another rim up and start again. The wheel should not ping when first ridden as I stress relieve them in the shop. Radial roundness is a tough one. This relies on the rim being round to start with. Most rims are within 0.5mm roundness i.e total up-down movement is 0.5mm. So wheels built by me have radial trueness within that figure (often it's very round, but its rim dependent).

A rim is worn if the rim wear indicators are no longer visible or the wall thickness of the brake track is 1.0mm or under.

So whatever your wheel requirements, whether it be road disc or rim brake, CX, MTB XC, MTB trial/AM, MTB DH, touring, commuting or leisure, The Cycle Clinic can help. Give us a call, drop in or e-mail. Wheels are what we do.